Source Times entertainment
MUMBAI — In a deeply personal revelation, Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal has opened up about the most painful chapter of his life, describing a perfect storm of emotional upheaval where the collapse of his 20-year marriage coincided with his mother’s terminal illness.
Speaking candidly on the YouTube show Cancelled to Crown, the actor stripped away the glamour of celebrity life to discuss the profound isolation he felt during his 2018 separation from former Miss India and supermodel Mehr Jesia, which occurred exactly as his mother, Gwen Rampal, was fighting a losing battle with breast cancer.
‘I Was Losing Everything’
Rampal and Jesia, who married in 1998 and share two daughters, Mahikaa and Myra, announced their separation in 2018 before finalizing their divorce in late 2019. Reflecting on that period, Rampal clarified that the loneliness he experienced wasn’t about a lack of people around him, but a total disconnection from himself.
“My marriage was not working out and it’s sad because I think love is not constant. Everything in life is not constant,” Rampal shared during the interview. “I think that was maybe the darkest phase of my life because at that point in time, it was exactly the time my mum had cancer and I was losing her. I was losing everybody who was close to me… I was losing everything that I had worked so hard to get.
The emotional toll was compounded by prior grief; the actor had lost his father just three years before his marriage dissolved, leaving him feeling entirely unmoored as his foundational relationships crumbled all at once.
The Power of Radical Introspection
Instead of deflecting pain or projecting blame outward, Rampal revealed that hitting rock bottom left him with only one viable path forward: looking inward.
He stressed the importance of resisting the temptation to play the victim during a crisis. “When you lose everything, there’s only one thing that is left in front of you and that is pure introspection,” he explained. “You can’t blame. If you blame, you are going to become even more miserable because you are using that as a crutch to not introspect honestly.”
The actor noted that healing required him to be brutally honest about his own shortcomings, acknowledging the areas where he had been “flawed,” “careless,” or “insensitive” so that he could genuinely rebuild his character.
Weathering the Storm and Finding an Anchor
While that period was defined by profound loss—his mother ultimately passed away in October 2018—Rampal credits his current partner, Gabriella Demetriades, with helping him navigate the tail end of the crisis.
Key Milestones Life Transitions
2018. Separated from Mehr Jesia; met partner Gabriella Demetriades
Oct 2018 Mother Gwen Rampal passed away after a long battle with cancer
2019. Divorce finalized; welcomed son, Arik
2023. Welcomed second son, Jet
Rampal described Demetriades as a “very strong anchor” who was navigating her own challenges at the time. “We both were in the storm and we had to… weather it. But it’s good, we got to weather it together and then the blessings came,” he said.
The actor became visibly emotional when recalling how the sun eventually rose on his life again, noting that while the grief of losing his mother remains, the birth of his sons brought a renewed sense of joy and triggered a complete 180-degree transformation in how he approaches life, habits, and relationships today.
